The Sinking Ship: (Un)Love Letters to Merlin

[Poopoohead]

The calendar is there but it doesn’t give you the actual open / close times

You are indeed correct, thanks.

So come on people in the know, how bad are these opening hours? I have a couple of trips planned and it’s and 8 hour round trip for us.

 

[WickerManiac]

You are indeed correct, thanks.

So come on people in the know, how bad are these opening hours? I have a couple of trips planned and it’s and 8 hour round trip for us.

I hope you aren't partial to a ride on the River Rapids, or a pre-lunch ride in the Valley.

 

[Matt N]

I hope you aren't partial to a ride on the River Rapids, or a pre-lunch ride in the Valley.

WHAT?! The Rapids are closed? No!!! My family and I loved the Rapids! But if it reopens in 2019 following some TLC, I'll accept that! I'm sure that if Merlin close the Rapids in 2018, they will reopen it after TLC in 2019, like they did with Hex and Driving School.
EDIT: @WickerManiac, where are you getting this info from, out of interest?

 

[Poopoohead]

I hope you aren't partial to a ride on the River Rapids, or a pre-lunch ride in the Valley.

Oh dear

 

[Rick]

We're not being unreasonable though, we just want Merlin to deliver to a standard that is comparable to what other large theme parks offer. We're not asking for completely unrealistic things here, it is clearly feasible as countless other parks have shown, including Alton Towers themselves under previous ownership.

The biggest proponent of the Sea World Entertainment parks on the boards saying this is quite frankly amazing.

 

[ringo]

I hope you aren't partial to a ride on the River Rapids, or a pre-lunch ride in the Valley.

River Raipds closed for the full season or now a “seasonal attraction” like Rumba at Thorpe?

 

[WickerManiac]

River Raipds closed for the full season or now a “seasonal attraction” like Rumba at Thorpe?

 

[MakoMania]

The biggest proponent of the Sea World Entertainment parks on the boards saying this is quite frankly amazing.

What's that supposed to mean? SEAS have cut in areas and I can't deny that (looking at you Gwazi), but nowhere near to the extent of Merlin, it's a whole different ball game. The fact that the San Antonio location (which gets similar attendance to Alton) is open 10am-9pm every day from June to August speaks for itself.

SEAS also plough tens of millions into rescue and conservation, Merlin has no such expense.

The offering at the SeaWorld and Busch Gardens parks in terms of opening times, in park entertainment and passholder benefits is incomparable to Merlin.

 

[WickerManiac]

where are you getting this info from, out of interest?

There are some credible people speaking about this on other forums.

 

[Rick]

What's that supposed to mean? SEAS have cut in areas and I can't deny that, but nowhere near to the extent of Merlin, it's a whole different ball game. The fact that the San Antonio location (which gets similar attendance to Alton) is open 10am-9pm every day from June to August speaks for itself.

Exactly what I said, two chains who have struggled for a few years for a variety of reasons have taken appropriate actions with cutbacks all over the place to remain profitable and without doubt, try and allay some fears in the financial community.

The problem with some comparisons to the past is that they don't take into account any of the core costs associated with running a theme park and generally the costs of just 'doing business'.

The fact that the San Antonio location (which gets similar attendance to Alton) is open 10am-9pm every day from June to August speaks for itself.

That speaks for the climate in San Antonio vs. Staffordshire and the cultural expectations of the individual markets that have built up over time. Plus, the fact that one of those parks exists smack bang in the middle of seventh most populous city in the United States and the other in the arse end of nowhere contributes too.

 

[themeparkfan]

If the rapids are closed that will be a joke! What is left at katanga canyon the RMT which will be soulless in that tunnel if rapids closed. The queues for that were huge last year on a hot day. Where are those guys got to go? With no water ride. And lets be honest wicker man will go down a bit with teething troubles so even more lost guests looking for something to do! I hope the box office is ready for all the complaints! It's getting beyond a joke I feel I had a better day post smiler incident in 2015 and each year has got worse when they want to increase attendance?

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[MakoMania]

That speaks for the climate in San Antonio vs. Staffordshire and the cultural expectations of the individual markets that have built up over time. Plus, the fact that one of those parks exists smack bang in the middle of seventh most populous city in the United States and the other in the arse end of nowhere contributes too.

Fair play, although I wasn't trying to suggest that AT should stay open until 9pm during the summer as that's clearly not going to happen under any ownership. I think 6pm & 7pm would be more reasonable rather than the 4pm, 5pm and 6pm closures we had dotted around the summer last year.

I would argue that SEAS and Merlin's response to challenge has been quite different though. SEAS haven't touched opening times, entertainment or ride lineups much (bar 2 rides in Tampa). What we have seen is absolutely unprecedented investment into the Orlando park with a complete rennovation of the Sea Lion stadium, a B&M hyper, more animal habitat rennovations and Infinity Falls this year with some large projects coming to Orlando in 2019 and 2020 as well.

Merlin's response to challenge was to reduce and delay investment, SEAS' response was to increase and accelerate investment.

 

[WickerManiac]

Merlin's response to crisis has been far more blatant and rampant than Sea World's.

Last time I checked they opened a Mack Ride not too long ago, a crazy B&M Hyper Coaster and I saw a insane Rapids installation going in with drops and everything!

This compared to endless cuts to operating hours, price increases, food quality collapsing, redundancies, glorified cheap capex (let's be honest, Wicker Man is a cheap SW by comparisons). Galactica was the only other capex.

The cultural points raised above are interesting. It is not my area of expertise so will refrain from commenting.

In my opinion Sea World is not comparable to Merlin/AT.

 

[James]

Fact is, a business model with huge investments every year, an enourmous entertainments budget, parades through the grounds every day would not see a return on investment in The Staffordshire countryside. If it did, these things would allready have happened.

Worked pretty well for them in the 80s/90s...

I don't think anyone seriously expects money to be pumped into Towers left, right and centre. At the moment what *most* enthusiasts want/expect is a theme park that runs all of its attractions, has good food and beverage offerings, has decent opening hours (9-5 or 9-6 or 9-7) and offers value for money. At the moment Alton Towers offers none of this. They can't even afford to run all of the rides currently on park.

 

[WickerManiac]

They can't even afford to run all of the rides currently on park.

They can afford to.

They just choose not to in an attempt to make long term savings.

The problem with this is that it is stripping back the core product. You can't reduce a product and expect to see some kind of growth.

 

[Matt N]

(let's be honest, Wicker Man is a cheap SW by comparisons)

I don't know what you class as cheap @WickerManiac, but Wicker Man, while not as expensive as Smiler, is still the 2nd most expensive SW ever built at £16m.

My personal opinion on all this is that Merlin has only done this to the extreme that they have due to the fallout from the Smiler incident and the events that followed (e.g. relegation from the FTSE 100). I hope that Merlin reverses some of their cuts if Alton has a successful year in 2018. This is not the way I would personally have gone about it, but Merlin had to do something to recoup their losses from the Smiler. I would personally have tried to cut budgets in a more subtle way that makes everyone (guests, employees, shareholders and management) happy and is less obvious to parkgoers. An interesting question to ask, though, is; would these cuts be happening if Merlin had remained a private company, and not had shareholders to answer to?

 

[themeparkfan]

Exactly this is an experience buisness not some public sector area which you can cut and people just have to deal with it. You need these people to visit again and more on top! If it's not good people just won't come new ride or not! Remember TP in 2012?

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[WickerManiac]

I don't know what you class as cheap @WickerManiac, but Wicker Man, while not as expensive as Smiler, is still the 2nd most expensive SW ever built at £16m.

I'm sorry, but Great Coasters are renowned for being affordable and cheap when bench marked against other "budget" manufacturers.

The figure Merlin quote is a load of garbage.

The hardware on Wicker Man will cost about £5Million. That's the absolute max.

 

[JB1985]

Without wanting to requote the person whom posted earlier about a PHD in business.

I do have a degree in business management and sit on the board of a plc business.

I understand the need for profit and the need for a ROI. As an enthusiast I am also realistic and know there is ‘the dream’ scenario- Year in Year rides shows food lots of filler rides. I understand that is just not practical.

What is shocking though that you are charged a premium for a product that is no longer up to scratch. It’s hotels are half arsed, ents is minimal, food is poor. The rides availability is shocking and as for the filler rides they are just a non entity.

Hell even DMP and Paultons have a better children’s line up. CBeebies is just meh.

I can only see two reasons for this. 1) preparing a sale or 2) the margins really are that tight And to provide the return required they have no choice

Personally I think it’s the latter.

I guess this is what happens when a corporation gets involved in a business like this. You see it at sea world and six flags to a certain extent. They get away with it as everything is so much cheaper in the states. The only reason universal and Disney can do it is because of the sheer volume of revenue elsewhere in their respective groups.

I hate to see it but this is the norm now for the UK market and AT until, perhaps, Merlin realise that to grow these parks they need to expect a lower ROI.

Perhaps this is the reason for high midway / resort investment, to increase other revenue streams?

 

[themeparkfan]

Can nick Verney explain to his colleagues this: "in 1994 we invested big time in the experience! Nemisis and toy land tours and visitor numbers exceeded 3000000 but when we don't invest they dwingle and customer takings decrease. Where do we go to increase visitors and their spending?"

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